Aside from the hotels, you're in trouble. Some advice: Avoid!, at all costs, the drabby-but-inexplicably popular (tourists!) coffee shop on 20th and N. On teh positive side, The Greek Place (19th north of M) serves up a $3.25 fresh baked pita with a fried egg, slice tomato, and fresh feta, perfect for the morning get-me-go. If you're looking for sit-down, keep looking. Or fellow hounds, am I missing out?

Annie's steakhouse in Dupont perhaps? I've never been, but it attracts a crowd.

Reeves Bakery - near metro center is sort of a little gem. Diner style with an emphasis on desserts. Not sure if they're open on the weekends.

If you want to go upscale, Gabriel's also in Dupont has a fabulous but expensive brunch buffet featuring a lot of mediteranean style breakfast foods on Sundays. Be forwarned that people will actually dress up a bit here - you wouldn't be out of place in khakis and a shirt w/ collar but when I (unknowingly) went in shorts, a tee and sandals I felt a bit self-conscious.

Another hole-in-the wall recommendation: The Mayflower Deli in the alley behind 1133 Conn.Ave (not sure if the street has a name, but it's right across from the Nat'l Geographic Explorer's hall. Tiny and cheap. Breakfast sandwiches (your choice of bread, egg, cheese and meat (bacon, ham, sausage and SCRAPPLE!!!) go for 2.00 in the mornings. Lunches feature a full array of typical sandwiches, but almost everyone gets one of the eleven special sandwiches, which come with a huge helping of double cooked fries. Good Cheesesteak and cheeseburger subs. And at 4.99 for a platter, you have enough for two.

If you're looking for a dirt cheap, fresh cooked basic breakfast before work on a weekday, either to eat in or take out, there's a hidden gem near Dupont Circle. In the office building at the corner of S and Connecticut that houses the Cineplex Odeon cinema with three tiny screens there's a small coffee shop that pulls me back day after day after day. The owner/operator does your basic eggs-any-style, hash browns, breakfast meat and toast with speed and good cheer, and the prices are great. Ferinstance, two eggs with bacon, ham or sausage, hash browns and toast costs $2.80. Especially good are her pancakes, which are huge, fluffy and delicious, and two of them (enough, believe me) with one egg, meat and toast go for about $3. Egg sandwiches are made to order and reasonably priced. I'm not much of a coffee drinker but a LOT of people get it and there IS a Starbuck's right across the street.

In order to find the place, which as far as I know is nameless (the only signs just say "Coffee Shop"), enter the office building through the entrance that directly faces the corner, and go out of the door at the back left of the lobby. Follow the hallway to the right, then left, then right again to a strange, small mini-cafeteria-like space about three steps higher than ground level. There are about a half dozen orange formica booths, and three or four small two-person tables. Basically, there's zero atmosphere, but at these prices who cares?!

Lunch here can also be an incredible value ($3.00 cheesesteaks; Bacon cheeseburger with fries, $3.40; grilled cheese sandwich for $1.40), with one unique "crock pot" style special (stew, chow mein, etc.) each day of the week going for about $3-3.50 for an extremely generous portion. Monday's special is bulgoki, and Korean travel posters decorate the walls, hinting at the background of our host. Judging from the traffic, most of the customers here are regulars, and the owner knows many of their orders by heart. Unless your food budget is much larger than mine, once you've discovered it you'll be back again and again, too.